Rou Keyi continued: "I wonder what your country has gained in the London financial market? ”

Zhao Dongyun had already put away the mood of idle talk at this time, and entered the state of diplomatic negotiations, and he knew that Rou Keyi's move to send people to the London financial market for private placement was just an introduction to the topic. So he immediately said: "The situation is quite gratifying!" ”

Although Zhao Dongyun had an indifferent expression on his face, he sighed secretly in his heart, because the private equity results abroad were really unsightly, and Zhao Dongyun was embarrassed to say it.

In order to raise funds for the war, the Soviet Union began to issue 'patriotic bonds' last year, and this patriotic bond was only issued in China, and the first phase had already raised more than 16 million yuan, and the second phase of the issuance was also acceptable, and more than 8 million yuan had already been raised. It can be said that the funds raised by the first and second tranches of 'patriotic bonds' issued in the domestic financial market were the main source of war funds for the Soviet system in the past six months, accounting for nearly half of the Soviet war funds.

However, the amount of money in the domestic financial market is also limited, and people are generally skeptical of various official bonds, to put it bluntly, the government's credit is too low, and major banks, money banks and other financial institutions lack confidence in buying long-term bonds. The purchase of the first and second phases of patriotic bonds issued by the Soviet Union was mainly tentative purchases, and basically the purchases were short-term bonds with a maturity of six months and one year.

Before the repayment of the principal and interest of the patriotic bonds issued earlier, there is no need to expect those capitalists to buy patriotic bonds in large quantities.

A few months ago, the Ministry of Finance noticed that the issuance of patriotic bonds was becoming weaker and weaker, and in order to further raise funds, the Ministry of Finance sent people to the financial markets in London and Paris to conduct private placements.

However, there are banks in the four countries, and it is very difficult for the financial officials of the Soviet Union to find a bank with great power in the local area to sell the bonds, and if there is no large-scale local bank to sell the bonds, it is very difficult to sell them on a large scale, so the financial officials of the Soviet system can only find a few small banks to cooperate in the issuance of bonds, and then the results are really too ugly, and the scale of bond issuance in Europe is less than 5 million in the months before and after.

Zhao Dongyun was extremely dissatisfied with this, and he originally wanted to bypass the bank group of the four countries to directly issue bonds locally, not to mention raising hundreds of millions, but twenty or thirty million should be raised, but he did not expect that the actual effect was so much worse than he expected, so he had successively replaced the two deputy directors of the Bond Department of the Ministry of Finance who were in charge of this matter.

But the depression in his heart naturally did not say it, but his face remained flat.

Rou Keyi didn't know whether he didn't see it or save face for Zhao Dongyun, so he didn't continue to say this, but changed his words and said: "Although Paris and London are still major international financial markets, China's New York is also a financial center, and I think those bankers in China will welcome your country to the New York financial market to raise funds!" ”

Rou Keyi is not wrong in saying this, New York's Wall Street has been rising for a long time, and it is not bad in terms of financial strength, but New York is still very general in the contemporary international financial market, and the most famous in the contemporary world, and the financial market in Paris, France, has the largest liquidity. As the heart of the empire on which the sun never sets, London is also quite strong in capital, and as for New York, it is the same as the United States in this era, rich but not famous.

It was thanks to the Russo-Japanese War that brought New York's Wall Street to the world's leading financial markets, when Japan and Russia issued a large number of bonds in New York to finance the war.

However, when Rou Keyi talked about Wall Street in New York today, his purpose was naturally not only to let Zhao Dongyun send people to New York to issue bonds to raise funds, he just expressed an attitude to Zhao Dongyun: The United States has the strength to provide a large amount of funds to the Soviet Union!

Zhao Dongyun also heard the meaning of these words, but he was more concerned about what the United States needs to pay for itself?

"I've heard of Wall Street's reputation, and I'm naturally willing to raise money in New York if I have the opportunity!" Zhao Dongyun said no more.

Rou Keyi smiled, then gave a slap in the face and said: "If the president needs it, with the strength of our bankers, he can raise this amount for you!" ”

Zhao Dongyun glanced at the five fingers he had erected, and asked tentatively, "50 million dollars?" ”

50 million US dollars, equivalent to about 100 million yuan, with the strength of the Americans, it is not a big problem to come up with 100 million yuan.

However, Rou Keyi shook his head with a smile: "Pound! ”

Fifty million pounds? Zhao Dongyun almost squirted out a mouthful of water, this is a formal diplomatic negotiation, you brag and don't make a draft, you think the pound is your dollar, 50 million pounds is enough to exchange nearly 260 million US dollars according to the ratio of the contemporary US dollar pound to huàn, which is converted into the 'Chinese yuan' issued by the Bank of China controlled by the contemporary Soviet system, which is enough to exchange for 500 million yuan, which is more than the Chinese yuan issued by the entire Bank of China.

If the Yankees really have the strength to raise funds for a war of this magnitude for themselves, let alone betraying their petty national interests, they can be the godsons of these Yankees.

But the question is, would they be so kind to give their money to themselves? Even if you just borrow them, you won't borrow them lightly.

Zhao Dongyun has never believed in the so-called pie in the sky, even if there is money to pick it up on the road, then you have to bend down to pick it up to get it, no matter what the benefits, you always have to pay a price!

The problem now is that the Americans boast that Haikou is 50 million pounds, regardless of whether they can take out such a huge amount of money, even if they can take it out, they plan to give it, but the price required is definitely beyond Zhao Dongyun's affordability.

So when Zhao Dongyun asked tentatively: "Oh, I don't know what your country wants!" ”

Rou Keyi still had a smile on his face and said: "We can raise at least 30 million pounds to build the Longhai Railway, the Jinpu Railway, and the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, which has already started construction in your country in the future." ”

Hearing this, Zhao Dongyun frowned, damn, he was almost frightened by this Rou Keyi, when he said 50 million pounds, he thought that the Americans could provide him with 50 million pounds of war funds, but he didn't expect it to be just the so-called road construction funds. And they say it's investing in these railways, but they're actually asking for the right to build the way.

Zhao Dongyun was dissatisfied, but still continued: "Oh, what about the remaining 20 million? ”

"We can provide His Excellency the President's government with a loan of 20 million pounds for the aftermath!" ”

Zhao Dongyun was still expressionless, and continued: "Oh, I don't know what the conditions are for this aftermath loan? ”

Rou Keyi said: "Naturally, you need your country to provide salt administration and fiscal revenue as a guarantee, as for discounts and interest, these can be discussed in detail at that time!" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Dongyun finally showed impatience: "Your Excellency the Minister thinks I will agree?" ”

Rou Keyi shook his head again: "No! ”

Hearing Rou Keyi's words, if it were someone else, it was estimated that he would immediately go crazy, but as a politician, Zhao Dongyun's cultivation of kung fu cultivation was quite reluctant, but his face darkened, and then he sighed lightly.

Rou Keyi continued: "Although what I said looks very similar to what the banking group said, we do not require financial supervision, and if the railway is built, we will not send troops along the road like the Japanese themselves! ”

Although Rou Keyi said so, but Zhao Dongyun still won't agree, don't say anything else, just say that the salt government will never be mortgaged, the former Qing Dynasty is so fucked, borrowed many times before and after, and even Gengzi Nian did not mortgage the salt government under such difficult conditions, you really think that the former Qing nobles didn't want to mortgage the salt government, they didn't want to, but they didn't dare, in the late Qing Dynasty, the salt government income was the bulk of the fiscal revenue, I don't know how many people stared at it with wide eyes, if the salt government took out the mortgage, The subsequent fiscal revenue will immediately have to be greatly reduced, and the consequence will be much stricter than the cession of millions of square kilometers of land.

Therefore, even Cixi, an old lady in the deep palace who would rather be a slave to outsiders, with long hair and short knowledge, dared to start a war with the world, did not dare to mortgage Yan Zheng.

Now if he, Zhao Dongyun, dares to open this opening, the next day people will have to point at his nose and scold the traitor, and then countless people will come to assassinate him, and it is estimated that the Soviet family will also fall out.

Although Zhao Dongyun doesn't mind betraying national interests, he can't make it too obvious, especially not to make small moves on sensitive matters that the people are extremely concerned about, such as salt government mortgages, financial supervision, and road construction rights, which are all political mines at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.

In this era, if you pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation and cede hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land, to be honest, there really aren't many Chinese people who pay attention. But if you do anything to sell the right of way, financial supervision, and salt government mortgages, as soon as they are poked out, they will become the fingers of Wanfu and leave a stench for 10,000 years.

Therefore, although the two baits of the Jinpu Railway and the Longhai Railway were thrown, Zhao Dongyun never planned to let these two railways be built directly by foreign countries, but was ready to borrow money to build the roads and minimize the influence of the government.

Seeing that Zhao Dongyun's face didn't seem to be very good, Rou Keyi didn't plan to continue to dwell on this issue, anyway, it was impossible to negotiate this loan in a short time, and the Americans' business mission had not yet arrived, so he came today just to test Zhao Dongyun's tone, so as to prepare for the real price at that time.

After sending Rou Keyi away, Zhao Dongyun called Lu Weixiang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again and asked about the current attitude of various countries.